Surgical needle.



PATENTED JUNE 11, 1907. T. G. EDWARDS.

SURGICAL NEEDLE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 21, 1906.

INVENTOR.

B), 1/ g I I A TTORNE Y5 UNITED STATES THOMAS CLAY EDIVAR DS,

or SiiiiiNAS, CALIFORNIA.

SURGICAL NEEDLE.

T0 or whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS CLAY En- WARDS, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Salinas city, in the county of Monterey and State ofCalifornia, have invented a new and useful Surgical Needle, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to surgical needles, and has for its principalobject to provide an improved form of needle in which the end of asuture may be firmly clamped, thus avoiding the necessity of sewing by adouble strand, and reducing the size of the openings formed in thetissues during the sewing operation.

A further object of the invention is to provide a needle which may bequickly threaded, and in which no portion of the suture will projectbeyond the diameter of the needle.

With these and other objects in view, as will more fully hereinafterappear, the invention consists in certain novel features of constructionand arrangement of parts, hereinafter fully described, illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, and particularly pointed out in the appendedclaims, it being understood that various changes in the form,proportions, size and minor details of the structure may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit or sacrificing any of the ad vantages of theinvention.

In the accompanying drawings :Figure 1 is a perspective view of asurgical needle constructed in accordance with the invention. Fig. 2 isan elevation of one side of the head of the needle on an enlarged scale.Fig. 3 is a similar view of the head of the needle looking from the sideopposite that shown in Fig. 2. Figs. 4 and 5 illustrate, respectively,the two sides of the needle at right angle to the parts shown in Figs. 2and 3. Fig. 6 is a transverse section on the line 6-6 of Fig. 3. Fig. 7is a similar view on the line 77 of Fig. 3. Fig. 8 is a sectionalelevation of the head of a needle of slightly modified construction.Fig. 9 is a plan view of the same. Fig. 10 is a plan view illustrating afurther modification. Fig. 11 illustrates a still further modificationof the invention. Figs. 12 and 13 are sectional views illustratingfurther modified forms.

Similar numerals of reference are employed to indicate correspondingparts throughout the several figures of the drawm s.

The needle 10 may be made of any size and contour, depending on the workor operation Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filer; July 21,

Patented June 11, 1907.

1906. Serial No. 327,207.

' performed, and in the preferred construction j the head of the needleis provided with a groove 15 in which the thread is concealed, i noportion of the thread projecting beyond the dilneter of the needle.

Near the head of the needle two eyes 16 and 17 are bored, and the endsof the eyes are connected by a groove 18 formed in that face of theneedle opposite the groove 15. I11 the preferred construction the eyes16 and 17 are placed at angles of ninety degrees from each other, andthe groove 18 which connects said eyes is therefore inclined or helical.

In threading the needle, the suture is first passed through the eye 16and then through the eye 17, the end being drawn through far enough topermit the operator to grasp and hold it while the suture is drawn tightand embedded in the grooves 18 and 18. The threading end of the sutureis then severed close to that end of the eye 17 from which it emerges,so that no portion shall project beyond the diameter of the needle. Theedges of the eyes serve as a binding means which will firmly grip andhold the suture, so that it is unnecessary to form a knot in the end ofthe same. In many cases the two eyes may be formed substantiallyparallel with each other, as shown, for instance in Fig. 8.

Fig. 9 illustrates a construction in which the eye 17 nearest the headof the needle is slightly ovate in form, tapering to a rather sharpcontracted end which will firmly grip the suture.

In some cases, as illustrated in Figs. 10 and 11, the end of the needlemay be split, the split portion extending from the head of the needle tothe nearest eye, as shown in Fig. 10, or the slit may terminate short ofthe eye as shown in Fig. 11.

In order to avoid the formation of the slot, the eye nearest the headmay be arranged as shown in Fig. 12. In this case the eye 17 is bored.from the end of the needle in a plane oblique to the axis of saidneedle, and this eye is connected with the eye 16 by a short groove.

As a modification of the construction shown. in Fig. 12, the second eyemay be arranged oblique to the axis of the needle, as shown for instanceat 16 in Fig. 13, thereby forming a rather sharp edge between theconnected ends of the eyes.

In both the constructions shown in Figs. 12 and 13 the opening 17 isused, the opening 17 of the needle shown in Fig. 12 being arranged at aright angle to the opening 16 and in Fig. 13 the opening 17 is disposedat a right angle to the opening 16*. In both cases the helical groove isused to connect the adj acent ends of the openings or eyes. In all casesthe needle is provided with a plurality of eyes so arranged. that thesharp edges at the ends of such eyes Will firmly grip and hold thesuture, avoiding the necessity of forming a knot at the end of thesuture as ordinarily practiced in single thread surgical needles.

I claim:

1. A single thread surgical needle having a pair of threading eyescrossing the axis of the needle at an angle to each other.

2. A single thread surgical needle having a palr of threadlng eyescrossing the axis of the THOMAS CLAY EDWARDS.

Witnesses:

G. H. MEREDITH, S. B. GORDON.

